Events 
| CRC Colloquium |
| Montag, 07.07.2008 16:00 - 18:00 | |
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Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Hedda Lausberg Arbeitsbereich Psychosomatik, Institut für Psychosoziale Medizin und Psychotherapie Universitätsklinikum der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Bachstr. 18 07743 Jena Tel. ++49 (0)3641 9 38085/6 Fax ++49 (0)3641 9 38087 Speech-independent production of communicative gestures: Evidence from patients with complete callosal disconnection Recent neuropsychological, psycholinguistic, and evolutionary theories on language and gesture associate communicative gesture production exclusively with left hemisphere language production. An argument for this approach is the finding that right-handers with left hemisphere language dominance prefer the right hand for communicative gestures. However, several studies have reported distinct patterns of hand preferences for different gesture types, such as deictics, batons, or physiographs, and this calls for an alternative hypothesis. Hand preference and gesture types in spontaneous gesticulation were investigated during three semi-standardized interviews of three right-handed patients and one left-handed patient with complete callosal disconnection, all with left hemisphere dominance for praxis. As a coding tool, the Neuropsychological Gesture Coding System (NGCS) was applied. Three of the patients, with left hemisphere language dominance, exhibited a reliable left-hand preference for spontaneous communicative gestures despite their left hand agraphia and apraxia. The fourth patient, with presumed bihemispheric language representation, revealed a consistent right-hand preference for gestures. All four patients displayed batons, tosses, and shrugs more often with the left hand / shoulder, but exhibited a right hand preference for pantomime gestures. It is concluded that the hand preference for certain gesture types cannot be predicted by hemispheric dominance for language or by handedness. The finding of distinct hand preferences for specific gesture types suggests a conceptual specificity of the left and right hand gestures. It is proposed that left hand gestures are related to specialized right hemisphere functions, such as prosody or emotion, and that they are generated independently of left hemisphere language production. These findings challenge the traditional neuropsychological and psycholinguistic view on communicative gesture production. |
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| Contact | |
| contact-person: | Stefan Kopp |
| homepage: | www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/ |